A teaching moment; after 10 days, family reunites with dog missing since Christmas Eve

For owner Jill Burns, the reality that her family's black lab, Fisher, is finally home after disappearing for 10 days -- along with the overwhelming outpouring of support she received from the community during that time -- is just now beginning to sink in.

Six-year-old Fisher went missing on Christmas Eve. Burns said she saw him wander out into the front yard of the family's home in Eureka at about 5 p.m. as she was making trips back and forth to the car, loading it up to go to a relative's house for dinner with her husband and two young children.

"Fisher's always been a wanderer, so I honestly really didn't think much of it," she said. "It's normal for him to walk around the side of the house and out of sight. Sometimes I even get calls from the neighbors letting me know he's over in their yard."

But when the family returned home from dinner that night at about 8 p.m., Burns said she got a sinking feeling in her stomach -- Fisher was nowhere to be found.

Although she and her husband tried driving around that night, Burns said it was too dark to have any luck.

"At that point we weren't too worried," she said. "We knew he had his tags on, we figured someone would call."

But no one did. The day after Christmas, Burns said she and her husband called the Eureka Police Department and the Humboldt County Animal Shelter, who promised to keep an eye out for him. Burns printed up flyers and began posting them around town. She also posted a picture of the missing dog to Facebook.

"Holy cow," she said. "I never imagined the effect that would have. It started a movement."

Burns said a neighbor created a 'Find Fisher' event page on the social media site and within two days more than 30 people -- some of them strangers she had never met -- had shared the poster she created.

"Everyone was just so unbelievably helpful," she said. "We would get phone calls and texts from friends, but also from complete strangers saying they thought they had seen Fisher somewhere or that they would be leaving food out on their back porch for him."

As Burns and her family continued their search for Fisher over the next several days, criss-crossing the Pine Hill area of Eureka where the majority of the sightings occurred, Burns said she relied on the community's support to keep her going.

"I had these down days where I thought he had maybe been hit by a car and didn't make it, but then I would see some story on Facebook about someone's mom's boxer being found after a month. I just though that I couldn't possibly stop going if all of those people were still going."

While driving around New Year's Day, Burns said she ran into another dog owner whose dog ran away after hearing the fireworks on New Year's Eve. After what she described as an "emotional moment," Burns said she promised the man that even if she found Fisher, she would keep searching for his dog.

A few days later, a friend of Burns who was out searching for Fisher found the man's dog.

"That really gave me hope that we would find him," she said.

On Friday afternoon Burns said she got a call from her husband: Fisher had finally been found. Although the individuals who found Fisher warned her husband he was pretty beat up, Burns said it was still hard to see him.

"He could stand, but he was so lethargic and skinny," she said. "He also had these scrapes, I can only describe it as road rash, along his side. It was very emotional."

Burns said a veterinarian in Ferndale couldn't confirm what caused Fisher's injuries, but said it was possible that he had gotten caught in a fence or hit by a car.

As Fisher, his head wrapped in a plastic cone to protect the scrapes on his back and side, nuzzled his face against her hand Saturday morning, Jill Burns said thank you to the community that rallied around her and her family. Without their support, she said she isn't sure Fisher would have been found.

Burns said it has only been in the last few days that she has been able to admit to herself that she was responsible for Fisher's disappearance.

"For awhile, I was just brushing it aside, trying to put the blame on someone else," she said. "But that isn't fair. It is my responsibility as a dog owner to keep him safe."

Although she regrets that night, Burns said it has taught her and her husband so much about being good dog owners.

"There have been a lot of changes since Fisher has come home," she said. In addition to ordering a GPS collar, Burns said Fisher is no longer allowed outside without a leash and that he will be getting a microchip implant on Friday, just in case he does go missing again.

Most importantly, Burns said, she and her family will no longer be taking their dog for granted.

"Ever since we had kids, Fisher kind of fell in rank on our totem pole," she said. "The only good thing about this experience is that it allowed us to see that. I am so grateful we now get a second chance.